I work for a Bankruptcy Law Firm – and yes, we are very busy with the way this economy is going. I am usually the “straightforward, don’t usually spoon-feed my clients, and say it like it is person.” The attorney is the nice one and then they come to me. Then they finish up the process with the attorney signing papers and the other staff helping out and being very kind to them. I like this arrangement as it calls for no fakeness of personality on my part.
Today I was thrown for a bit of a loop. I had a client who was Portuguese. Usually not a problem for me because most Portuguese speakers also understand Spanish, and I speak Spanish 90% of my work day. I wish I had Mackenzie with me at this time to translate but I would imagine that she would also have been left scratching her head. You see, my client had been here in the US for quite some time and had been speaking a lot of Spanish. So the language she now speaks is dubbed Portanhol by our attorney, who spent 2 years in Brazil doing a service mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Therefore he speaks Portugese. Make that spoke Portugese and now speaks Portanhol, due to the high number of Spanish clients. The only drawback was that neither of them could understand each other perfectly because it was so muddled. But they did understand enough to get her to the point that she would need my services.
She was a nice lady whose life has been filled with trials. And I was trying to help out. So I spoke Spanish, she spoke Portanhol and we both spoke a bit of English to each other to get her through. We made it!!!
I wish I could speak Portuguese during 90% of my work day.
Oh, but Tony's Portuguese grandma was in church today and we chatted. 🙂 It was a glorious, brief moment for me.
I wish I could speak Portuguese during 90% of my work day.
Oh, but Tony's Portuguese grandma was in church today and we chatted. 🙂 It was a glorious, brief moment for me.